Titles, Privileges, and Perception
Earlier in the book we talked about how some governance structures attempt to alter the actions of their leaders by making them swear vows of poverty or otherwise trying to “outlaw” them owning things. Both Vatican City and the Dalai Lama’s mansion-like complexes show how well those intentions hold up after a free generation.
That said, simple naming conventions and cultural norms allow for a similar effect to be achieved. Were a family office to be run by a “Grand Executor” rather than a “Squalid Executor,” the person would almost certainly behave differently or at the very least a different sort of person would apply for the role. Similar effects might be created by a tradition in which a country’s president must always kneel before their constituents.
One great example of this can be seen in the Jul’hoan people. Jul’hoan hunters who bring back the biggest piece of meat have a cultural mandate to share it with the tribe, all while receiving insults from other tribal members about it, to prevent them from getting “too big a head.”
An inverse of this can be seen historically in court traditions of having to keep one’s head always below that of the monarch, which typically required bowing, stooping, and/or kneeling in their presence. This was one of many traditions meant to constantly reinforce the separateness and the supremacy of monarchs. These traditions almost certainly changed the way leaders acted and thought about their subordinates.